US pulls the plug on flagship clean coal project

IT WAS one of the Bush administration’s biggest and boldest efforts to develop clean energy, and had backing from both industry and foreign governments. Now it appears doomed.

On 30 January, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced it would not complete payment of its promised contribution of around &dollar;1.3 billion towards the FutureGen project, a coal power plant designed to use carbon capture and storage to cut emissions almost to zero. This was despite pledges to pay the remaining &dollar;500 million of the plant’s total bill from a group of energy companies called the FutureGen Alliance and governments in …

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